Races

Friday, February 27, 2015

Week 4 of ?? 5k training

This week saw some more "breakthroughs" in my running. While I'm loosely following a 5k plan I found online, I am 100% following the speedwork + pace recommendations in it.

The {reoccurring} lesson I keep relearning each week is to trust my abilities and not to talk myself out of workouts because they seem "too difficult." I picked a challenging yet attainable goal. The speedwork will be challenging- more so than marathon training. But I need to just HTFU STFU and get shit done.

Workouts: Monday-8 mile cycle

Tuesday-REST!!

Wednesday-5 miles with 4 @ tempo (6:53, 6:53, 6:48, 6:44)*I was stressing about this workout and the paces I'd have to hit, yet once I started running everything fell into place and I felt good. It was a comfortably hard pace and I could have kept going another 2+ miles. COWABUNGA!

Thursday-easy 3

Friday-progressive 5 miles

Saturday- 6 miles. 12 x 200's at 45 seconds, (6:00/Mile) pace, with 1 minute 200 meter recovery between. This workout felt so easy! Workout called for 8, but I took it to 12 and could have done many more!

Sunday-9 miles cycle

Total: 40 miles
Total time: 4 hours, 5 min23 miles running17 miles cycling.

One thing I love about 5K training right now is the low mileage especially during winter. Last year this time I was training for a marathon and doing 99% of my runs on the treadmill, with 16+ milers at 4am before work. It was difficult to train in those circumstances, but I will ensure I do the work to get to my goal. I am currently enjoying the flexibility of shorter workouts which do not impact my day to day life. Such as having to eat right, and go to bed early before a long run.

But on the other hand I am bummed I am not running more. I love long runs where I can zone out and coast up and down the Lakefront. I cannot run outside when it is below 30 degrees due to Reynauds and my inability to breathe/stay warm in extreme cold so my mileage has dipped this month.I doubt I'll break 100 running miles for February due to the cold. But, I have been cross training more which I know has been really good for me and injury prevention. And jumping back into marathon training post crankle would have been dumb because going from 0 miles to 40-50 a week is recipe for disaster. Keeping training short and sweet is the way to go while I build up my base again.

For our 11 month anniversary*, we went out to Vice District for a beer, followed by Kurah in the South Loop. *We aren't one of "those" couples that celebrate anniversaries for everything. But we do like going out for no particular reason at all.
Kurah was delicious- it is a Mediterranean tapas bar. The food was really good- but the portion sizes seemed a bit large to be considered "Tapas" unless it was meant for a group of 4 or more. For example, we ordered the Dolmades, stuffed grape leaves- I was expecting around 6 to come out, but a plate of 16 arrived at our table! Now we know what to expect next time we go there.

A blog post wouldn't be complete without a selfie... Happy 11 months! I'll be all cliche and shit and say wow time has gone fast, and yet it feels we've been together forever.

We finished our weekend watching the Oscars (Zzzzzzzzz) and drinking good beer with the CB dog.

With only a few weeks until my first 5K of the year, I am feeling pretty good about my training so far, but also know that the race is not super conducive to PRs. Regardless I am excited to test my new speedy legs out on a race soon to see where I am at in this sub 20 goal.

Yep- usually when we get tapas at Mercat or Tapas Valencia we know to order like 6-8 plates to split between us because we expect the portions to be small. We thought the same thing at Kurah and ordered 3 appetizers (and were planning on splitting a main) and were blown away by the portion size! (In the best possible way!) the food was great and now I'm happy to know what to expect for next time- order less "small" plates and go straight for some shawarma :)

That blackberry lime sorbet looks AMAZING. I agree with Anne that usually the portions for tapas are so tiny that I would enjoy being surprised the other way around. I've actually never heard of Kurah until now - thanks for the tip!

Low mileage during the wintertime is nice. I've heard it said that runners should focus either on distance or on speed, but not both at the same time. Sounds like you are nailing that! However, I tend to go the other direction where I will run low mileage at slow paces, haha. ;-P

The sorbet was surprisingly easy- I adapted a recipe from the James beard site for sorbet. I would have just used more limes.

You need to go to Kurah. Or better yet, we need a double date to Kurah!

Your point about speed vs distance is something I've thought a lot about lately. I know that you can really only focus on one or the other- and maybe to be better at each one, it might be good to alternate training cycles- build speed then train for a longer distance. I know they would compliment each other nicely :)

11 month anniversary--I love it! Matt and I went out last week to celebrate one year since we got engaged. Even though we are already married so I don't really think we needed to celebrate it, we just wanted to go out and eat a good meal. It was worth it!

Thank you :) I love that you celebrated your engagement even though you're married. That is super sweet. (and happy anniversary!) We always enjoy going out for a good meal too- makes it even more special when we can tie it to another milestone or something good in our lives :)

Introduction

Greetings! I'm Xaarlin, and live in Chicago with my husband and border collie dog, CB. I am an accountant by day and enjoy running, discovering new craft beers, learning Portuguese, eating/cooking delicious foods and spending time with my family when off the clock. I use this space to talk about life, running, and anything else that interests me. Mikkeller Run Club Chicago Captain. Untappd:Xaarlin